SOLID-PHASE MICROEXTRACTION COUPLED WITH HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY FOR THE DETERMINATION OF ALKYLPHENOL ETHOXYLATE SURFACTANTSIN WATER

Nonionic surfactants of the alkylphenol ethoxylate class are relativel y nonvolatile analytes that are typically analyzed by LLE and HPLC or GC after derivatization. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) has seen m any GC applications, but recently the ability to hyphenate SPME with H PLC was investigated, In this paper, a new SPME/HPLC method for analys is of Triton X-100 and other alkylphenol ethoxylates is described. Nor mal-phase gradient elution with detection by UV absorbance at 220 nm w as used for the analysis. Several new coated phases, currently in the developmental stage, were evaluated. New Carbowax/template resin and C arbowax/divinylbenzene coatings allowed successful analysis of alkylph enol ethoxylates with a linear range of 100-0.1 mg/L. These coatings p rovided the best agreement between the ethoxamer distribution of surfa ctants after extraction and that in the original surfactant. Limits of detection of the individual ethoxamers were determined to be in the l ow microgram per liter to submicrogram per liter range. Some applicati ons of the method have been demonstrated for sewage sludge samples.